Its 2013. My brother's Xbox 360 churns quietly. The disc spins at a comfortable pace. I know the door blocks out the noise, but I still put pillow along the bottom of the door. Blocking out any sound and light from escaping into the hall. Mom will leave her room at 10 pm or so to fall asleep watching tv, and the risk of her recognizing that I'm up past my bedtime is too high.
I smuggled a used copy of the Hitman collection from the local gaming store into our house, hiding it beneath my shirt as I walk in from a "bike ride." Mom hates gun games, but I've become fixated. I don't care for the bald man much, but I keep thinking about the puzzles I've seen on youtube. All the creative ways to eliminate your opponent.
I don't make it far into Hitman 2. I get impatient with the slow walking speed and get caught hundreds of times by indulging in the run button. The limited saves become agonizing, but I'm determined to earn the silent assassination rating. I complete all the St. Petersburg maps and two of the Japan maps. Its a nerve-wracking exercise and once I start marching towards a Japan castle with some not great racial depictions, I bail. I move onto Hitman Contracts.
But that's for a different review. Repeating all those patterns, tracking all those guard movements, late into the night? It sticks with you. I was stunned by how many rooms I instantly recognized. The snowy streets of Petersburg, the back of a transport truck, the estate. The feeling of little clockwork pieces moving on their routes around you.
For revisiting this, I wasn't interested in a challenge. I wanted to explore those memories. As such, almost the entire game was played with invisibility cheats onward.
What a strange experience it is, to wander through those little sandboxes without instantly getting shot by aggressive guards. If I'm in a hurry, I can rush past puzzles and aim directly for the map's targets. But its cozier to drift along the map at my own pace. Observe these little clockwork pieces arriving at their destination. Read signs at the Russia bus station. Wondering who had to design the computer screens and the graffiti art and all the tiles and models and everything outside and in-between.
The sense of humor that will carry the franchise forward builds on itself quickly. Assassinate a playboy in his jacuzzi and the five different bikini girls he's surrounded by pull out machine guns. Arrive in the location of your final target and he's left a plastic standee waiting for you. Most of the jokes lean into "foreigners, am I right?" but its a 00s-ism you kind of have to force yourself to swallow. There's something here. Something to build from. Something special
And there's just a beautiful feeling about perusing through these digital worlds and enjoying the craft of it without the stress of dodging bullets. Its clunky and fairly racist, but you can feel the experimental heart starting to form beneath the surface. Hitman is starting to become Hitman. And its a beautiful process to see.
I smuggled a used copy of the Hitman collection from the local gaming store into our house, hiding it beneath my shirt as I walk in from a "bike ride." Mom hates gun games, but I've become fixated. I don't care for the bald man much, but I keep thinking about the puzzles I've seen on youtube. All the creative ways to eliminate your opponent.
I don't make it far into Hitman 2. I get impatient with the slow walking speed and get caught hundreds of times by indulging in the run button. The limited saves become agonizing, but I'm determined to earn the silent assassination rating. I complete all the St. Petersburg maps and two of the Japan maps. Its a nerve-wracking exercise and once I start marching towards a Japan castle with some not great racial depictions, I bail. I move onto Hitman Contracts.
But that's for a different review. Repeating all those patterns, tracking all those guard movements, late into the night? It sticks with you. I was stunned by how many rooms I instantly recognized. The snowy streets of Petersburg, the back of a transport truck, the estate. The feeling of little clockwork pieces moving on their routes around you.
For revisiting this, I wasn't interested in a challenge. I wanted to explore those memories. As such, almost the entire game was played with invisibility cheats onward.
What a strange experience it is, to wander through those little sandboxes without instantly getting shot by aggressive guards. If I'm in a hurry, I can rush past puzzles and aim directly for the map's targets. But its cozier to drift along the map at my own pace. Observe these little clockwork pieces arriving at their destination. Read signs at the Russia bus station. Wondering who had to design the computer screens and the graffiti art and all the tiles and models and everything outside and in-between.
The sense of humor that will carry the franchise forward builds on itself quickly. Assassinate a playboy in his jacuzzi and the five different bikini girls he's surrounded by pull out machine guns. Arrive in the location of your final target and he's left a plastic standee waiting for you. Most of the jokes lean into "foreigners, am I right?" but its a 00s-ism you kind of have to force yourself to swallow. There's something here. Something to build from. Something special
And there's just a beautiful feeling about perusing through these digital worlds and enjoying the craft of it without the stress of dodging bullets. Its clunky and fairly racist, but you can feel the experimental heart starting to form beneath the surface. Hitman is starting to become Hitman. And its a beautiful process to see.
2 Comments
beautiful review.
DeemonAndGames
1 year ago
Really unique and fun read!